In Camera...Clear Winter Sunset

Last weekend, before the current "Beast from the East" storms, we enjoyed a few clear but cold winter days with a sky of unbroken blue. On the Sunday the horizon was clear and sharp and the setting sun at Crosby beach sank cleanly below the horizon, undisturbed by the clouds that usually gather over the distant horizon.

The Stena-Mersey sails past the Iron Men on Crosby beach

The sun sinks cleanly into the sea.

Waiting for a possible green flash after sunset, which sadly did not appear on this occasion.

In Camera...Storm Eleanor's rough seas

The coastline at Crosby at high tide, the morning after the worst of Storm Eleanor had passed over. The seas were still high enough to swamp the promenade. The head of an iron man is just visible in the sea on the right of the image.

Just three days into January and Storm Eleanor passed over the UK, Scotland and Northern Ireland suffered the brunt of the storm but there were still 60mph winds along the Sefton coast. These images were taken at high tide around 11.45 the morning after the worst of the storm had passed over. The iron men were covered by the rough high seas and the promenade battered by the wind driven waves.

An apt warning for the stormy conditions

The head of an iron man becomes visible in a trough between the waves.

The fast moving clouds were torn apart at times so that bursts of sunlight swept across the seas...

...rainbows came and went in the bursts of light that caught the showers.

Spray from the sea filled the air

Showers sparkled in the flashes of sunlight.

In Camera...Dramatic Light at Crosby Beach

Just before the storm. The beach at Crosby is eerily quiet, only the raucous cry of a lone gull disturbs the humid threatening air. The pale sand, dry after days of hot sun, reflects a false brightness against the dark of the heavy rain filled clouds spreading in from the sea. The wind farm on the horizon is scarcely visible through the sweep of rain heading north just off the coast. The rusty iron men seem to glow, their colours saturated by the strange light off the sand.

Last Wednesday evening the weather changed dramatically from sunlight to storm, a few days of hot humid weather came to an end with a cold front and thunderstorms passing over England from the South West.
Late afternoon there were a few rumbles of thunder and I decided to go down to the beach in the hope of capturing some lightning flashes. I did not see any lightning, but the horizon out to the west was obscured by heavy rain and the sky was very dark out at sea.
Here on Crosby beach the sand near the promenade was very bright and dry after a few days of heat and low tides and seemed to reflect the light from the bit of bright sky left overhead before the storm clouds rolled in. This light seems to fill the iron men with saturated colour, especially vivid against the dark clouds out at sea.

In Camera...Industry and Art at Sunset

 The massed army of giants, the huge wind farm now off the Sefton coast at Crosby, large metal structures that somehow appear graceful when caught in the light of the setting sun, watched by man's art, the solid cast iron figures of Antony Gormley's Another Place. The photograph was taken last week and, at this time of the year the sun sets way up to the north west, so that its low side light glances off the tall towers of the gleaming metal structures.

The sky to the north west just after sunset.

In Camera...May Sunsets

The month of May saw fine weather with some particularly good skies near the end of the month which provided some superb colourful sunsets down at Crosby beach.

In Camera...Winter Light

Yesterday was dark and grey with strong gusting winds and wintery showers. Snow fell in many parts of the country and was forecast for the North West, but the forecast snow did not materialise in Crosby and by around 15.30 the sky was clearing from the north west. The cloud was breaking and revealing patches of blue and I decided to head down to the beach to see if there was any chance of a dramatic sunset.

Down on a cold and deserted Crosby beach, the sand surface near the promenade was very smooth and polished looking, a result of the strong cold winds blowing in from the Irish Sea.

The Clwydian hills to the West lay blanketed with snow under a thick bank of dark grey cloud over Wales but the sky above was streaked with orange tinted cirrus clouds glowing from the last light of the sun, reflecting light into the tidal gullies of water left on the beach by the receding tide.

A truly bleak, but somehow beautiful, raw winter evening where there were only the solid silhouettes of the iron men to share with me the appreciation of nature in this wonderful glowing light at the end of a stormy day.

In Camera...Changing Light at the End of the Year

Visits to Crosby beach over the turn of the year produced these differing images. The one above was taken on New Year's Eve and captures the last light of day for the year of 2016.
I also turned this to black and white for part of my series "Light on Water".

The following evening was much clearer, the first sunset of 2017 revealed vivid colours and beams of crepuscular light caused by the shadows of clouds streaking across the sky as the sun sank into the west over the hills of North Wales.

Last light of the the first day of 2017

In Camera...Late Summer Skies

A late August sky just after sunset, the golden glow reflected in still water held on the beach.

Late August and, at this time of year, the sun sets more to a west-north-west direction, providing glowing skies that are able to silhouette the solid shapes of the iron men on Crosby beach beautifully. A perfect background to show off the scene. Often, just as the sun sets, any wind will drop, resulting in perfect reflections in any pools of seawater held on the beach. This lightens the foreground of the image, providing greater interest than just a dark beach.

Two figures join the iron men in watching the afterglow.

The afterglow above the horizon throws the skeletal figures of the wind turbines into sharp silhouette.

In Camera...Cruise Ship sailing by

The Caribbean Princess edges out of the Mersey past New Brighton and the Iron Men on Crosby beach

This has been a good summer for cruise ships on the River Mersey as they sail in and out of Liverpool and these pictures feature the Caribbean Princess, one of the larger vessels to visit the city, as she left the port on the evening of Sunday 28th August 2016.

The Caribbean Princess sails out of the Mersey on her way to Belfast.

In Camera...Queen Elizabeth Returns to The Mersey

Just after 06.00 on Saturday 2nd July Cunard's Queen Elizabeth sailed into the Mersey to commemorate 100 years of the Cunard Building on Liverpool's historic waterfront. It was a fine bright morning, the low early morning sun dodging in and out of clouds driven by a strong west north westerly wind.

I captured several images as the vessel sailed past Crosby beach framed by Antony Gormley's Iron Men.

Ten Years of Another Place Exhibition

                                     

A new exhibition opened at Crosby Lakeside Adventure Centre this week celebrating Ten Years of Another Place - how time flies! The exhibition features many of my images of the Iron Men spread over twenty panels and tells the definitive story in words and pictures of Antony Gormley's Another Place - the artwork installation consisting of 100 iron men on Crosby beach. 

The exhibition is open to the public during normal opening hours of the Centre, seven days a week and runs until 1st November. Crosby Lakeside Adventure Centre can by found at

Crosby Coastal Park, the Esplanade, off Cambridge Rd, Waterloo, Merseyside L22 1RR

At the official opening of the exhibition arranged by Regenerus and sponsored by the Arts Council

Below is a small selection of images from the exhibition capturing some of the many moods of Another Place on Crosby beach.